Relevant offers

The Department of Conservation (DOC) today made public its advice to Smith on whether he should give access to Australian mining company Bathurst Resources for its proposed 106-hectare Escarpment Mine on the Denniston Plateau near Westport.

Smith yesterday announced his decision to approve Bathurst's application for access to the area, a day before changes to the Crown Minerals Act meant access for major mining proposals would have to be publicly notified.

He admitted the mine would damage the plateau's conservation values, but Bathurst's $22 million conservation package, the largest reached by the department, had swayed his views.

The department's 246-page decision, dated May 6, did not state whether Smith should approve the application, but its opposition to the mining proposal was plain.

It noted Bathurst's proposal failed in key areas that Smith had to consider under the Crown Minerals Act when ruling on such mining access applications.

The application by Bathurst's subsidiary, Buller Coal, was ''inconsistent'' with the objectives of the Conservation Act, the purpose for which the land was held by the Crown and the conservation management strategy, its report said.

It was ''particularly concerned'' about losses to natural and historic resources at the site.

The only positive part of the application was the $22m compensation offer, which the department said ''would achieve significant conservation gains overall''.

That money would be used to fund pest and predator control over 25,000ha of the Heaphy River catchment in Kahurangi National Park for 35 years, as well as on 4500ha on the plateau and surrounds for 50 years.

The department said that compensation would not provide a ''like for like'' exchange of biodiversity but would contribute major gains for the Heaphy catchment and beech forest surrounding the Denniston Plateau, plus historic values on the plateau.

Bathurst had strongly criticised the report, claiming it over-estimated the mine's adverse effects, and presented a ''worst-case scenario'', the report revealed.

''It is clear from the balance of the information provided by the applicant and subsequent information provided by department experts that there would be significant and irreversible adverse effects on the conservation values and overall ecological integrity of the application area and the Denniston Plateau should the proposed activity be approved.''

It said the key issue for Smith or his delegate was deciding whether proposed partial safeguards and the compensation package outweighed the ''inconsistency of the application with the objectives of the Conservation Act, the purposes for which the land is held by the Crown and the Conservation Management Strategy''.